The US Government seems to have itself in a pickle with its citizens. First, there was an alleged leak regarding blanket acquisitions of metadata from Verizon on all phone calls. Shortly afterwards, the President responded to the public summarized simply as, “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls.” Even the DNI responded with a statement as well covering the legality of the surveillance. Of course, there was an additional story about the government having taps into all the major Internet sites for a huge data-mining operation. Over the weekend, the story broke even more with revelations about the source of the leaks, a disgruntled defense contractor that fled to Hong Kong for political asylum. Naturally the EFF is pounding its we told you so drums over the whole situation.

Not everyone will be an astronaut when the grow up, jokes despair.com. Its pretty funny until your Mayor Bloomberg lays it flat on the students in New York City. In his weekly radio show, the mayor says, “The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren’t rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class …. Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College — being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal.”

The 3D printing craze continues to evolve, especially as prices have dropped making them more affordable and accessible. With printer accessibility and the incepted seed of 3D guns, more people continue to develop open source CAD designs for improved performance. While the first models were AR-15 lowers (the regulated component) and reliant on existing metal parts for the remainder of the weapon, complete handguns have been produced entirely from the 3D printer. This newer development has led California Senator Leland Yee to propose the mandatory registration of 3D printers since they can be used to produce untraceable firearms. “Terrorists can make these guns and do some horrible things to an individual and then walk away scott-free, and that is something that is really dangerous.” In a limited Reason-Rupe telephone poll of only 1003 subjects, Americans indicated they were in support of banning the production of firearms with 3D printers.

If you haven’t at least heard of BitCoins, you’re living under the proverbial rock. They Internet’s digital currency of anonymity based on encryption algorithms has had interesting ride over the past year. Approximately a year ago, they were valued at just over $4 each after a particularly scathing cyber theft. This lull was followed by a spectacular rise starting in early 2013 to over $260 each. Despite the rises and falls, it would seem BitCoins are going to stick around for awhile and their continued acceptance (Amazon, PayPal, etc.) has led economists to start paying legitimate attention to them.

What do you think the Army will do this time around? The last time an Army football player was drafted by the NFL, the Army opted to send him off to war instead. Recently, four year quarterback Trent Steelman was signed by the Baltimore Ravens. It would seem a broader target audience to have a professional football player advocating the US Army for public relations than hitting the American Southeasts for NASCAR (although that ends this year) and drag racing.

Only days ago, hackers compromised the Associated Press’s Twitter account and posted a breaking news story about explosions at the White House injuring the President. The Tweet (I hate that term) went viral and actually caused a 1% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average though the dip was later recovered in further trading. The hack is presently attributed to the Syrian Electronic Army claiming to be “a group of enthusiastic Syrian youths who could not stay passive towards the massive distortion of facts about the recent uprising in Syria.” While this is amongst the first hacks to truly pan out an effect on the free market, it was not sustained but reveals an ability for adversaries to take non-traditional avenues towards impacting real world operations beyond simple site defacements and denials of service.

Curious – was catching the bomber done appropriately?

First, it involved a voluntary lockdown of Boston which legal experts are saying was really a “shelter in place” typically used for keeping order in a disease outbreak. The governor requested everyone stay indoors during the manhunt due to the increased police activity, questioning, vehicle movements and the violence that ensued in their pursuit. What if it had been a true lock down? Should the governor have the authority to force everyone to stay indoors and possibly throw a blanket probable cause on across the board for search purposes?

So apparently a pair of bombs went off near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon. At about 2:45pm EST, the bombs exploded along Boylston Street near Copley Square and allegedly within roughly 100 yards of each other. Reporting continues to vary with current deaths at two and nearly a hundred casualties evacuated to various medical facilities sporting injuries from burns and scratches to amputations. The explosions’ timing for an hour after the first finishers seemed timed to wait on a greater number of marathon runners to be within the vicinity.

“Pew Pew Pew”, said the USS Ponce. No seriously, by 2014, the United States Navy will be deploying a solid state laser to sea aboard the USS Ponce. Current testing has validated the weapon at destroying drones and small ships. Navy officials believe utilizing energy weapons will save the military money in the long run due to each shots estimated cost being less than $1 (after recouping the cost of installation of course).

What happens when your host state passes a number of laws unfriendly to your business? You pack up and move elsewhere. As Maryland has passed a number of recent laws banning or severely regulating the products of Beretta, the nearly 500 year old company has opted to leave the state. With it, the company will take over 300 jobs, production for thousands of weapons for the US military and law enforcement and millions of dollars in annual tax revenue for the state. “Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldn’t buy it?” said Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta.